Strategies recently talked to Nathaniel “Nat” Slavin, partner and co-founder of Wicker Park Group and one of LMA's 2014 Hall of Fame inductees, about career, his history with LMA and his ideas about the future. While the full article will appear in the upcoming issue November/December issue of Strategies, here’s your chance to preview some interesting facts about Nat.

Nat joined LMA in 1995 and hasn’t missed a single annual conference since then.

When he first joined, there were two classes of members: Associate Members and Regular Members. Part of the former category due to his status as a vendor/service provider, he quickly became passionate about working with a key group, including former LMA Presidents Heather Gray-Grant and Nathalie Daum, as well as with current President Tim Corcoran, to create “One LMA.”

After co-founding the Wicker Park Group right before the 2008 recession hit, Nat explained: “We faced challenges because law firms were reticent to start any new initiatives, but at the same time realized that we were the perfect fit to help them best understand their clients’ needs. We knew it was going to take some time, and like law firms’ efforts to grow their businesses, we realized that if we differentiated ourselves and repeatedly proved the value of client feedback, we would be successful.”

Finally, Nat spoke on the direction of legal marketing. “I am bullish on the future of legal marketing. Firms are evolving, sometimes not as fast as we would like, but are evolving nonetheless. Part of that evolution is to continue to invest in all of the processes that help law firms run more like businesses. We are seeing more specialization, more segmentation and a greater number of special interests within our industry, and law firms are embracing and supporting those changes. Every smart law firm knows that competition will never decrease and that the supporting teams, from finance to business development to technology to marketing and communication, are the essential tools of a firm’s current and future success.”